New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: September 27, 2024

New Music Friday is with us once again and once again we have a bounty of riches to choose from. Every Friday The 13th Floor picks five new releases with think you should know about and this week is no exception. Check them out and see if there is something there that strikes your fancy.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda picks these five new releases for your consideration:

1. Fairground Attraction – Beautiful Happening (Raresong) After 35 years, the four members of Fairground Attraction, including singer Eddi Reader are back making music together. The folk-rock band formed in London in the mid-80s with their debut album going double platinum, but they split up while recording the follow-up. Now they are back. “I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be back together, making music again,” reflects Mark E. Nevin, “I think we had all given up hope that it would ever happen a long time ago. It is almost spooky, as though we are ghosts, who have come back to life, but something happens between us when we play together; time evaporates and it could all have been yesterday.”

2. Kate Bollinger – Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind (Ghostly) This is the debut album from LA-based singer/songwriter Kate Bollinger who is originally from Virginia, which is how she knows her co-producer, Matthew E. White. Kate comments: “My good friend Matt [E. White] was visiting from Virginia and we got together to play some music. We wrote this song and then drove around Los Angeles together. That same day he helped me realize the kind of record I wanted to make, which I subconsciously knew but couldn’t really find the words for until then…”

3. Burton Cummings – A Few Good Moments (JoJo Prod) The former Guess Who front man fronts up with his first solo album in about a decade. Says Burton,  “The songs on this album took a while to become the proper collection. I believe in these songs because they are the result of having lived more years. At this point I have no interest in writing teenage love songs. Aging has changed the writing and that’s natural. I believe in these songs and I hope that the people who have followed my material enjoy them. I want this album to stand up when it’s listened to years from now.” We here at 13th Floor believe Cummings possesses one of the great rock & roll voices, is a top notch songwriter and belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. At the very least, he needs to be heard! Check out his cover of the Arc Angels Shape I’m In:

4. Ra Charmian – Waiata Wairua (Self) Tāmaki Makaurau duo Ra Charmian have released their reggae-pop debut album, Waiata Wairua. “We want our album to be one that listeners play on a sunny day and just feel good,” says Ra. “As artists, we love reggae and Motown, so soundwise you should hear this inspiration coming through!” The songs on Waiata Wairua  were inspired by a period of time when Ra and Hayden Booth were going through big life changes – marriage, death (Hayden losing both parents and Ra losing her Dad), and having a baby – which meant they quite literally experienced the circle of life while making this debut album.

5. JD McPherson – Nite Owls (New West) Hailing from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, this is JD McPherson’s first album of original songs in six years. Nite Owls is steeped in a deep affinity for foundational rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and r&b (among other mid-century American-made sounds), and filtered through a unique and alluringly idiosyncratic songwriting sensibility. “To me, the thread between Duane Eddy (whom the album is dedicated) and Depeche Mode is that single-note, reverb-y guitar style,” McPherson says about connecting some of these dots. “So it felt natural to blend that kind of big-string guitar thing with the classic stuff and a dash of surf. It made sense.” Click here to read the 13th Floor album review of Nite Owls.